HOW THE COURSE “GM’S OPENING LAB” HELPED WIN A GAME AGAINST A FM

In my previous article, I informed you of my live seminar in India (for both students and coaches), which will most likely be inOctober 2015. If you missed it, read about it now here: LINK

In order to make the seminar as useful and convenient as possible for you, I need to know your preferences. Therefore, it would be very helpful for me if you can take part in a short surveyand let me know your thoughts.

Additionally, I’ve received a message from another student, Alfredo, who has benefited from studying my courses. I’m glad to see such regular success by my students. And I’d like to share the student’s message with you today.

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I played a scheduled 20 minutes-per-game tournament recently. The good point is that I’ve qualified for the next stage by defeating a Fide Master (FM) with the Benko Gambit which I studied in the course “The GM’s Opening Laboratory” (LINK).

The funny thing is that he fell for a trick from this opening and had to give up in a few moves. The game started with the moves:

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5

Benko Gambit

White to play

4.cxb5 a6 5.b6 g6 6.Nc3 Bg7 7.e4 d6

White to play

8.Nf3 0-0 9.Bd3 Qxb6 10.0-0 Nd7 11.h3 Ne8

White to play

12.Qc2 Ne5 13.Nxe5 Bxe5

White to play

GM Igor Smirnov: I’ve a question for you now. The game has moved slowly into the middlegame stage. How would YOU play here as White? After calculating all possible variations, you may continue with the actual game.

In this position, my opponent immediately played 14.f4, trying to attack my bishop.

Black to play after 13.f4

GM Igor Smirnov: What do you think about White’s move 13. f4? Do you find any attacking possibilities for Black? After calculating all possible variations, you may continue studying the game.

I replied with 13…c4+, thereby winning a piece!The game continued, but as the great Mikhail Tal used to say when Bobby Fischer claimed that he could give a piece to all the masters of that time: “Fischer is Fischer, but a piece is a piece“.

As you can see, even titled players suffer from blunders. Moreover, on an amateur level, a blunder is the most frequent cause of a loss.In order to get rid of oversights, check the free lesson “How to eliminate blunders?” here: LINK